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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Why not just rent the piano a climate-controlled apartment somewhere and use it like a timeshare? Each person gets 1.8 days per year with it.

Well one can't play piano all day ... we could schedule 4 people per day for 7.3 days each!

Sounds like a great idea.

Another option would be for us to buy it, sample it, store the samples on a computer, ask Dewster to add some magic regarding resonances etc, rip out the action and replace it with the VPC1, put some good active speakers in the cabinet, and then finally, complain about the piano still not being perfect when we play it ...

Unfortunately for me, as much as I adore the Shigeru line-up, $200k is out of my range. I do, however, smile every time I walked passed my music room and see my lovely CP209 patiently waiting for me. Think I'll go say hello right now.

edit: just for the record, even if the price of the EX is too steep, the SK III and V and both lovely instruments. I pretty much swoon whenever I get my hands on either.

disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Kawai except as a very satisfied customer

Bah. While we are talking about Shigerus I'll mention my opinion: I have played several Shegeru's including the EX but I never noticed anything significantly different from the RX line. I'm kind of a fan of Kawai acoustics but if I played one blind I couldn't tell you if it was a Shigeru or RX. It turns out that having hand-coiled strings and the other things that make SK special doesn't make a difference in how it sounds--not to me anyway. Any differences I have heard are within the spectrum of what you hear from one piano to the next within a line given differences in voicing and soundboard quality. I think the perception that they are significantly better is just the result of a lot of marketing.

I like Shigerus, but only as much as RX's of the same size. Give me a K.Kawai and have it prepped hard-core by that dude who flies over from Japan to prep each new Shegiru in its new home and I'll be happy.

Of course there is no 9' RX, so if we are going to have a full concert length, SK is our only option.